The Circus

After being mistaken for a pickpocket and pursued through a carnival, the tramp winds up front and center at the travelling circus, stealing the show and offered a job. There he romances an acrobat, the abused daughter of the circus manager, gets locked in the lion cage, and must step in to perform the tight rope act for his romantic rival when he no-shows for the gig. The Circus is a perfect little Chaplin short feature, funny and poignant, with the Hall of Mirrors scene, the automaton gallery, and the stunning finale all standing out.

**** out of ****

City Lights

After the dedication of a local monument chases him from his new resting place, the Little Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) stumbles upon a beautiful, blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill) and makes it his life's work to raise the necessary funds to procure an corrective ocular operation, a mission that will lead him to gigs as a street sweeper and pugilist, and also into an inconsistent friendship with a drunken millionaire (Harry Myers). Still swimming against the tide of talking pictures, and with a few pointed barbs towards the still new format thrown in for good measure, Charlie Chaplin's mostly silent masterpiece may be the taciturn legend's finest expression as writer, director, and star. Poignant and often uproariously funny, City Lights is a joy from top to bottom and contains one of the most touching endings of all time.

The Great Dictator

During an unnamed World War I battle, a Jewish barber (Charlie Chaplin) from the fictional country of Tomania saves the life of a superior officer and is immediately knocked into a coma. Released from the hospital two decades later, he returns to his shop where, unbeknownst to him, his people are persecuted at the behest of a vile dictator (Chaplin, again). "The Great Dictator", Chaplin's first genuine talking picture, functions great as propaganda, but is somewhat slight as a Chaplin movie which is just as well considering the historical context. The best comedic scenes involve gags with Chaplin as the vain, insecure dictator Adenoid Hynkel and his bullying ally Benzino Napaloni humorously portrayed by Jack Oakie. The final speech, a direct plea to the audience for peace and sanity, is surprising and moving.

In 2002, Kevin Brownlow and Michael Kloft in collaboration with Turner Classic Movies, released a documentary entitled "The Tramp and the Dictator" which documented the paralleled lives of Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler and how his awareness of these similarities, no matter how trivial, spurned Chaplin to create "The Great Dictator." Kenneth Branagh narrates this intriguing film which features some remarkable, colorized making of footage.

Limelight

In 1914 London, a drunken and forgotten comedian stumbles his way into his apartment when he begins to smell gas emanating from one of the flats. Breaking the door down, he rescues a suicidal dancer and afterwards begins to nurse her back to health. Raising her spirits and devoting himself to her, the clown begins a revival in order to raise money for her revue, but fails miserably leading to a role reversal with the dancer championing his spirits. All results in a grand finale with the two artists performing in a grand production. "Limelight" is Charlie Chaplin's tribute to his life's work. While overindulgent and overly sentimental, the film is deeply moving and stylistically superior. Hearing Chaplin speak, which he had done before on film, is a great surprise as his voice is elegant, well-spoken, and not at all a letdown compared to his silent tramp. His performance is wonderful as well, incorporating many of his silent gags into the spoken role. Clare Bloom is really fine as well, even though her character is overly mawkish. While the best parts, in my opinion, occur in the smaller moments in Chaplin's flat with Bloom, the culmination song and dance routine between Charlie and fellow silent great Buster Keaton is the highlight of the movie. "Limelight" is a deservedly indulgent self-tribute by and to the greatest clown of the cinema.

Chaplin

I found Chaplin to be an engaging film for the same reasons that many had panned it when it was released in 1992, for the fact that it covers much of Chaplin's scandals and shortcomings. Director Richard Attenborough gives us an insider's view of Charlie's life from his early years of squalor in Britain to his unmatched successes during the Golden Years of Hollywood (I actually found a lot of similarities between this film and The Aviator). Robert Downey Jr. is excellent in the lead as he recreates Chaplins well know mannerisms that we are all familiar with while creating a character that not many of us knew. It is also remarkable that Downey Jr. was only 27 when he made this film. Yes it is an imperfect work, and not all the parts add up to the whole, but it is an interesting portrait of a brilliant, talentened, and troubled man brought to the screen with a great career defining performance.
***